1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate, in general, to routing of network traffic in a network. More specifically, the embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for learning network information, which include a plurality of sub-network routes.
2. Description of the Background Art
In the field of virtual private networks, information pertaining to various sub-networks is required, to route network traffic and apply Internet Protocol security (IPsec) policies on the network traffic.
In the present state of technology, Cisco's Reverse Route Injection (RRI) technology is used in the context of IPsec Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). RRI technology enables VPNs to learn information pertaining to sub-network routes. Further, RRI technology works on the basis of negotiated IPsec proxies, and learns information pertaining to the sub-network routes from the proxies negotiated during the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Quick Mode exchange.
If there are ‘N’ networks behind an IPsec client router, the RRI mechanism minimally negotiates ‘N’ proxies (selectors) and creates ‘N’ security associations (SA) for the other end of the network, to learn about ‘N’ networks. Negotiating ‘N’ proxies and creating ‘N’ SAs can be a waste of resources, which is quite expensive.